Since its reboost on day 331, Astra 1K has manoeuvred to maintain a
mean motion near 15.97 rev/d. For the first three days after the
reboost, it maintained a nearly circular orbit; thereafter, its
orbit has become increasingly eccentric.
The appended sample of elements, shows that perigee height has
decreased by about 53 km; apogee height has increased by about 44 km.
Assuming this evolution is real, and not some error in the orbit
determination, then it appears that the orbit is being set up for an
eventual de-orbit, as was reported several days ago.
I am a bit suspicious that the orbit determination is being confounded
by the frequent manoeuvres, but this is only intuition.
Ted Molczan
285 X 301
1 27557U 02053A 02331.73479222 .00865813 34397-3 20455-2 0 147
2 27557 51.5943 50.2274 0011406 214.1999 145.9393 15.96102301 295
279 X 303
1 27557U 02053A 02333.48734341 .00154529 20699-4 35369-3 0 245
2 27557 51.5918 40.8794 0018014 281.8279 77.9760 15.96739048 570
285 X 301
1 27557U 02053A 02334.17606605 -.00232387 29486-4 -53696-3 0 251
2 27557 51.5847 37.2297 0012378 296.1511 63.8223 15.96044583 687
286 X 304
1 27557U 02053A 02334.99030928 -.00335816 48695-4 -81179-3 0 295
2 27557 51.6008 32.9075 0013174 281.2569 78.6958 15.95290025 813
267 X 315
1 27557U 02053A 02335.18627878 .00711487 22995-3 15303-2 0 304
2 27557 51.5837 31.8498 0035847 292.1235 116.0708 15.96662275 845
257 X 317
1 27557U 02053A 02337.55507306 .00327449 55140-4 62078-3 0 391
2 27557 51.6080 19.2800 0045181 304.6724 54.9548 15.98177862 1227
254 X 324
1 27557U 02053A 02338.18051282 .00050270 12321-4 10000-3 0 418
2 27557 51.5985 15.9549 0052507 307.1832 51.9977 15.97650087 1329
244 X 338
1 27557U 02053A 02339.36944511 .00478061 10542-3 83409-3 0 467
2 27557 51.6200 9.6594 0070994 312.5080 46.9951 15.96759770 1510
235 X 347
1 27557U 02053A 02340.74622793 .00060841 12748-4 10000-3 0 524
2 27557 51.6243 2.3519 0083664 320.0052 39.2923 15.96758492 1733
Perigee and apogee height are relative Earth's mean diameter of 6371 km,
and based on the elset eccentricity, which is stated for argument of
perigee of zero.
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Dec 07 2002 - 03:34:56 EST